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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Raindrops on roses: mushrooms and cheese press

I finally got a chess press - it is technically my sixth wedding anniversary gift. I think production can begin on my first hard cheese this weekend! I'm so excited!

My mushroom bucket is doing well; I'm informed that the mushrooms grow in 'flushes' (waves). I swear that they grow so fast that sometimes they seem to double in size over the course of an afternoon.

My husband had his birthday in October. I trawled through Lovely Wee Days for a fun recipe to try. I decided to try the Ladysmith cake, based on the description that it was somewhat like the cake version of Belgian Biscuits. It was. My daughter was responsible for the jam, so we did not have a beautifully smooth layer of jam but rather jam that was smooshed throughout over and, in some cases, through the cake. We also used twice as much (you try arguing with a four year old as to the amount of required jam). We didn't put walnuts on the top, and made strawberry icing for the top. It was delicious. The jam had kind of caramelised around the edges and gave a nice chewy texture on the edges. Quite a success, and I think that I would make this cake again.